Gerisch Foundation

Neumünster has a sculpture park of international stature. The driving force behind this unique cultural commitment in Schleswig-Holstein is the Gerisch-Stiftung, founded in 2001. The foundation is based in Neumünster, the home of the founders, Brigitte and Herbert Gerisch. The former chairman of the board of the BIG-BAU group, today its honorary chairman, wants to develop the former textile and leather centre of Schleswig-Holstein into a “town of modern sculpture”.In 2002, Brigitte and Herbert Gerisch began to build up a sculpture collection designed to grow annually. The constantly growing collection comprises works by artists of international standing, including Magdalena Abakanowicz, Horst Antes, Ian Hamilton Finlay, Mimmo Paladino, Anne and Patrick Poirier, Menashe Kadishman, Brigitte Kowanz, Markus Lüpertz, Olaf Nicolai and Stefan Sous.

The sculpture collection is carefully integrated in the three-hectare landscape park. With the restoration of the historic ‘Reform’ garden designed by the Lübeck landscape gardener Harry Maasz, the spatial transitions between the formerly private park and the restored historic garden have been reformulated.The formerly private land, laid out in the style of an English landscape garden, with its cropped shapes, wooden bridges and lily ponds, is now seamlessly connected to the ‘Reform’ garden, which is worthy of protected status.